Mr. John Devitt:

The European Commission commissioned a study in 2017 on the question of public procurement corruption and the potential impact of enhanced whistleblowing frameworks. According to the EU, between €1.5 billion and €2 billion is lost to the EU economy through corruption in public contracting. Ireland was considered to be relatively low risk compared with some other member states, particularly newer members of the bloc. It is a risk nonetheless and we have highlighted it in previous reports. I will not go into too much detail on our recommendations around public contracting, which go back to 2012. Needless to say, enhanced transparency, including the publication of all contracts awarded above a certain value, would be helpful, as would anti-corruption training for public contracting and those in sensitive roles in public procurement, as well as enhanced disclosure of their financial interests. According to the report commissioned by the EU in 2017, the benefits of implementing whistleblower procedures in Ireland outweigh the financial cost by a factor of between 1.4:1 and 2.3:1. It is believed that for every euro invested by the State in promoting whistleblower procedures, the State saves between one and a half and two times that amount in potential procurement fraud. In the context of the role of whistleblowing in preventing losses through fraud, waste and corruption, the investments made in protecting whistleblowers far outweigh the costs of implementing those procedures.